This workshop gave participants a chance to be part of discussion to improve how we adopt quality research into agency practice and across the industry. It was an opportunity to gain greater knowledge of the quality work of three Bushfire CRC research projects, combined with facilitated discussion to further the implementation enabling improved safety of fire fighters and increased capacity of specific agencies and the industry as a whole.

A new tool developed by a Bushfire CRC researcher from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems sets aside the operational support roles of planes and helicopters, and focusses squarely on the attacking role of bombing aircraft, and how they might best be used to deliver fire suppressants including water, foam, gel and retardant.

Wildfire management experts from North America, Australia and New Zealand have recognized for decades that they share many commonalities. This recognition provided the motive for numerous informal visits and formal study tours on both sides of the Pacific over the years.

Characteristics of fuels and weather drive fire behaviour. These two back-to-back seminars provided an opportunity to hear from the researchers from across Australia involved in issues such as fire behaviour in shrublands, grassland curing and links to the Grassland Fire Danger Index, and evidence for the importance of fire in maintaining forest health.

Before the tragic February 2009 bushfires in Victoria Bushfire CRC researchers had looked at Australian bushfire fatalities over the past 100 years. Lead researcher Dr Katharine Haynes is a Bushfire CRC researcher at RMIT University and Macquarie University’s Risk Frontiers, was summoned to provide detailed evidence on the study to the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission in May.

Pages

After 11 years, we are about to enter the last month of your Bushfire CRC. It has been an incredible journey since 2003.

For me, what has stood out the most, notwithstanding the ground breaking research, is the culture change the industry has undertaken throughout this period. At the heart of this has been the close partnership between the Bushfire CRC and AFAC. The...

Better management of emergency incidents can reduce any adverse consequences on communities. This Fire Note discusses research into multi-agency emergency management at regional and state levels to improve incident management.